The present invention relates to a laminating device, and in particular concerns a laminating device from which an object can be withdrawn by a user in the event of a jam or mis-feed.
Laminating machines are well known. In a typical laminating machine, a pair of rollers are provided which lie close to, or touch, one another, presenting a “nip” through which objects to be laminated may pass. The rollers are typically heated, and this heat allows the sealing of objects, for instance sheets of paper or card which are placed in plastic pouches and fed between the rollers.
The rollers are typically driven to rotate in opposite directions, so that objects to be laminated are drawn between the rollers. However, it is not uncommon for an object, such as a pouch, to jam in position when partially fed through the rollers. This may occur because the pouch is too thick to pass between the rollers, or because the pouch has been fed into the laminating device at an angle. In conventional laminating devices it can be awkward to remove an object which is jammed in this way. Attempting to grasp a rear part of the object and pull it back out of the laminating device requires a great deal of strength, since the user must rotate the rollers against the driving force provided by the motor. Even if the motor is switched off, or power to the laminating device is stopped, it is still likely to be difficult for a user to drag an object back through the rollers, as it will be necessary to overcome a great deal of friction to “back-drive” the motor.
It has been proposed, for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 6,874,555, to provide a laminating device in which the rollers can be decoupled from the motor in order to allow a jammed object to be removed from between the rollers more easily. This US patent discloses a device having a lever, a drive cog being mounted at one end of the lever and the other end being provided with a handle that may be depressed by a user. When a user operates the lever, the drive cog is physically separated from a further cog, thus decoupling the motor from the rollers.